in a different era and in the old days, even the '80s and '90s you came to the cliff and there was bob dole and pete dough min chi george mitchell and they found a way back. and now it is just much more difficult. the polarization is much more entrenched and harder for these parties to come together, even when they feel the alternative is worse. >> they no longer feel the alternative is worse. both sides seem to feel the alternative is better than if we act in the next ten days. >> i will move you to guns real quickly. so much going on with the fiscal cliff, it's hard to imagine they are going to jump into this gun debate really any time soon. i think people say, oh, we're going to act now on guns. well, now is a relative term on capitol hill. when will that happen? >> that can be any time in the next decade. we saw the president try to buy some time this week by appointing his task force and putting joe biden in charge of it. his first meeting is with cops. i suspect the second and third meeting will be with cops. there aren't a lot of other people to meet. it will be a long time as s